Two killed in Delhi’s Ghazipur landfill collapse

New Delhi, Sep 1 (IANS) Two persons, including a woman, were killed when a huge portion of a landfill in east Delhi’s Ghazipur collapsed on Friday afternoon, police said.

The collapsed mound’s debris swept away a car and a two-wheeler, along with their riders, into the nearby Kondli canal, a police official said. He said the woman was riding the two-wheeler when the landfill portion collapsed.

Joint Commissioner of Police Ravindra Yadav identified the deceased as Raj Kumari and Abhishek. Earlier, official sources said three persons had died.

He said five persons were rescued and that all vehicles that fell into the canal had been retrieved.

A National Disaster Response Force team was also pressed into the rescue operations.

An official earlier said the woman’s body had been recovered. “Another two-wheeler rider who also fell into the canal has since been rescued. About four-five vehicles are reportedly buried under the debris,” the official had said.

The Delhi Fire Service (DFS), which got a call about the accident around 2.45 p.m., sent four-five JCB machines for rescue operations.

“We have taken out five persons from the canal and rushed them to the Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital here,” a DFS official told IANS.

The official said rescue operations were on and the death toll could go up.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia went to the accident spot and blamed the BJP-ruled municipal corporation for the accident.

AAP MLA from Kondli, Manoj Kumar, also blamed the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), saying the civic body did not pay attention to the increasing height of the dumped waste at the site due to which the pile collapsed.

“Had the MCD not let the height of the waste material increase above its optimum level, the incident would not have happened,” Kumar said.

Meanwhile, EDMC Mayor Neema Bhagat of the Bharatiya Janata Party, blamed the AAP-ruled Delhi government for what she said was “poor maintenance” of the landfill spread over 70 acres.